West Chester officials call for gun legislation

WEST CHESTER – Responding to the recent school shooting in Newtown, Conn., borough officials have taken aim at current gun laws by passing a resolution calling for new legislation.

The 3-page resolution, brought to council by Mayor Carolyn Comitta, highlights three areas of action: the passage of the Fix Gun Checks Act, which would require a background check for every gun sale and ensure that all criminals and other dangerous people who are prohibited from buying a gun are listed in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System; passage of legislation that would keep military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines off the streets; and legislation that would make gun trafficking a federal crime.

Comitta and council supported the resolution because of its balanced approach to gun legislation.

“This is not a fanatical viewpoint. It’s a balanced common sense viewpoint,” Comitta said. “I can assure you if it was fanatical, I would not have anything to do with it or if it trampled on anyone’s constitutional rights, I would have nothing to do with it.”

The resolution was passed unanimously by council at Wednesday’s monthly meeting.

Councilman Jordan Norley said many of the points stated in the resolution deal with problems West Chester has faced in the past and will bring about positive change.

“I think it makes a lot of sense,” Norley said.

At council’s last meeting in December shortly after the school shooting in Newtown, council members agreed the present is not only a time for silence, but “time for a moment of outrage and action.”

Since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., members of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, including Comitta, have called on Washington to take action in order to end gun violence.

Comitta joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns as mayor elect three years ago. She was joined Wednesday by mayors from Lancaster, State College, York, Media, Malvern and others both inside and outside Commonwealth.

President Obama’s plan to reduce gun violence was presented Wednesday at the same time Mayors Against Illegal Guns were meeting in Washington D.C. for its advocacy day on Capitol Hill.

“We are very pleased that MAIG priorities are central to the president’s plan,” Comitta said in response to Obama’s announcement the same day mayors gathered on Capitol Hill to demand change.

“We can be proud that Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the organization whose priorities we unanimously supported in our resolution, represents a common sense, balanced approach to the problems of gun violence; seeking action that will curb gun violence, while protecting second amendment rights,” Comitta said.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns began in April of 2006 where it grew from 15 mayors to more than 825 across the county. The organization claims more than one million grassroots supporters which it said makes it the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country.

The bipartisan coalition, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, has united mayors around the common goals of: protecting their communities by holding gun offenders and irresponsible gun dealers accountable; demanding access to trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat illegal gun trafficking; and working with legislators to fix gaps, weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other prohibited purchasers to get guns.